Road traffic noise contributes to environmental noise, which can result in cardiovascular disease,
sleep disturbance or annoyance for the exposed population1. The reduction of road traffic noise
aims to increase health and life quality. Therefore, the vehicle pass-by noise emission, which is
determined in a standardised test situation, was limited by legislation. First introduced in the 1970s,
vehicle pass-by noise limits have been gradually reduced for all vehicle classes. However, road
traffic noise was not as significantly reduced as the pass-by noise limits.